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The Congress of South African Trade Unions is disgusted at the findings of the 2008/209 report of the Commission for Employment Equality (CEE), which showed that white men still occupy 61% of all top management positions.
48% of all those recruited at this level and 45% of all employees promoted to this top level are also white males, while the equivalent figures for black men are 10% in top management positions, 13% of those recruited and 13% of those promoted to this level.

Indian men represented 5% and coloured men 4%, while white women represented 12%, black women just less than 4%, and Indian and coloured women each just more than 1%.

This is despite the fact that in government the picture is very different. There 61% in top management are black, 12% coloured, 5% Indian, 21% white and under 1% foreigners. Although that still falls short of the target of matching the demographics of the country, the government is making good progress.

On the other hand if you take the private sector alone, virtually no progress has been achieved. White people hold 74% of the top positions, followed by black people with 13%, Indians with just less than 6%, coloureds with 5% and foreigners accounting for about 3%.
This is a shocking indictment of the private sector, which has done virtually nothing to transform the demographic structure inherited from apartheid.
The report totally demolishes the argument that black economic empowerment is now redundant because we now live in an equitable non-racial society and that BEE and affirmative action are ‘anti-white'. On the contrary we still live in a society in which wealth and power remains heavily biased in favour of the white minority.

The federation agrees with the CEE Chairperson, Jimmy Manyi, that the government's approach of persuasion was not having the desired effect, that black and coloured people were bearing the brunt of it, and that the present law "is very forgiving".
We welcome his statement that "the department and the commission are going to take a much less conciliatory view", that "those who are not playing ball we will name and shame" and that there are going to be a lot more prosecutions.

His report powerfully reinforces COSATU's view that BEE is as necessary as ever, and the federation backs the Department of Labour's proposed amendment to the Employment Equality Act which would penalise companies not abiding by racial diversification in the workplace.

COSATU concurs with Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana's opinion that to remove legislation dealing with the lack of racial diversity - a legacy of apartheid - was tantamount to "throwing away the Constitution" and that "previously disadvantaged people would soon get frustrated with extending an olive branch to people who had formerly oppressed them during the violent apartheid era.

The minister spoke of an "impending revolution" and warned employers "that the revolution will be a revolution of all black people".
COSATU will back to the hilt attempts to enforce the existing legislation but will also continue to argue for a far broader form of BEE which benefits the majority of the formerly disadvantaged and not just a small elite minority. Much more needs to be done to empower the workers and to establish and sustain worker and community co-operatives.